Farmers League: How Enrique Helped PSG Harvest UCL Triumph
Grief shapes us. It asks us questions of where our heads are. Losing a loved one is accepting to live with an eternal lacuna. There spaces stare but are eternally unfilled. There are only memories.
When Luis Enrique lost his daughter, Xana six years ago, something changed about his world, as one would expect. Ever so charismatic and energetic, he poured his grievance into work. He planted seeds of pain and tilled the ground for succour. It had to come— even if so remotely — in different ways. Football offered some respite. But it would never be anything near the beauty of the time he spent with his fruit.
"I don't need to win a game or the Champions League to think about my daughter. I think about her every day. She is with our family and I feel her presence even when we are losing,” he said.
"It is about thinking about what we had together, thinking about the positives from the negatives for me and family.
"Xana is always with us. We always think of her, we love her. We carry her forever in our hearts.
"I think she would run among us here. It's a wonderful thought and nice to share it with family and friends.
"I was delighted with the banner, but I don't need a trophy to think about my daughter."
Enrique is a man who leaves nothing behind. He says his heart and expresses his vision. Fearlessly. Relentlessly. Honestly. His rise to prominence came on the back of challenging ideas and ideals that threatened his work. And more often than not, he prevails.
He is fighting his agony and charging on with it at a club that understands what losing means. He is doing it with a clear vision, an unmistakable identity and an unshakable determination — three qualities that make for an eclectic mix in leadership.
The Days It Poured
PSG have tasted agony themselves. They've seen the allure of fulfilment and still fell short of the joy it brings. They have splashed and splattered money around problems trying to find a sticky solution, yet ever getting stuck at it. From the context of a football club, they have done it all.
A fifty-five-year-old club is young relative to most of its European competition. But PSG are a club that needed to get into the groove early, for the sake of itself, the city and country it represents.
Paris is one of Europe’s brightest cities of carnival. Ever so bubbly, electric in every sense of the word and colourful, brimming with artistic talents and gifted sportsmen, yet it lacks a major European club football story to tell.
PSG represents Paris’ sporting lifeblood. Parisiens love football. The city is home to some of the most gifted football potential on the planet and has one of the strongest mines of football stars — Clairefontaine Academy. Yet, they couldn't be called a big football city for the triumph it lacked.
Paris Saint-German brought some bliss. You can feel it in the buzz at the Parc Des Princes and you could feel the soul of that fanbase from their jeers and cheers. They want to win. They'd touched earth and were crying to the heavens now.
Qatari Sports Investment, PSG owners are a money-yarning venture. They've often thrown money at problems and wished their troubles away by settling for the stars. It ended in a team so scarred that it had become scared of what the future held.
Winning the Ligue 1 had become a staple that lacked appreciation. It was too certain to be surprising. Fans had become blasé to the eminence it brought. They wanted more.
The club fought tooth and nail to hold on to Kylian Mbappe just last summer. That relationship ended on a disruptive and sour note. PSG held on to their dear lives as they fought for the loyalty of Paris and France’s biggest sporting identity at the moment.
To lose Mbappe felt like losing a woman they loved. They'd shared memories, pain and losses. They'd bought the world — Messi and Neymar and hoped that would be enough for glory — but it never happened. The beautiful bride trailed promise to where it is popular to win. He learnt a lesson in life.
President of the club, Nasser Al-Khelaifi gave Mbappe everything he wanted until money wasn't enough to keep the French football star committed. He made the popular move and PSG suddenly got more popular.
Luis Enrique: Choosing One’s Favourite Coffee
Enrique won the Champions League ten years ago at Barcelona, defeating Juventus 3-1 in the final. That season, Barcelona won the treble and conquered everything they faced but it wasn't always a smooth journey.
Managing Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar would naturally ask for concessions. They were three otherworldly footballers who could make a rainy day sunny on their best days. Enrique initially laboured to have their great days but once he hacked the process, he flew out of the blocks.
That Barcelona team was dominant and were successful at it. His experience since then has been positive and negative including managing his country, Spain and falling short of his own expectations.
PSG brought a challenge that offered respite. Many PSG managers in the past brought many bodies in and sometimes looked to be swallowed by the magnitude of the project. They also looked lost in touch with the galaxy of stars that surrounded them. Enrique identified this trouble.
In a video that has often trended on social media, he schooled Mbappe and called his bluff in a personal meeting. While praising his abilities as a footballer, he demanded him to run, work his socks off for the team and help them defend better. In that video, Mbappe watched like a man who knew his days at the club were numbered.
PSG’s reconnaissance after Mbappe’s exit didn't take a long time. Enrique was quick to identify what he needed for his structure to thrive. In the summer’s transfer window when they looked bound to lose Mbappe, PSG owners lined up Victor Osimhen but Enrique rejected that idea. He didn't want a #9. He knew what he wanted.
Portuguese striker Gonçalo Ramos never stood a chance. His French teammate, Randal Kolo-Muani got a loan move away from the club in January as he struggled with minutes. Enrique’s mood board didn't point to a centre forward as the missing link.
In terms of goalscoring, Mbappe has it all. He combines pace, a rare goalscoring prowess and an ability that is almost second to none in the art, but what Enrique needed for the group was more and beyond. His vision was clear and his direction had arrows. They were visible enough.
For PSG, God Has To Be From Georgia
A player of Kvicha Kvaratshkelia’s quality isn't often available in the market for €75m. That price beggars belief in a world where players of lesser abilities have gone for more.
PSG went for their man and got him from Napoli in January, right in the middle of a difficult European campaign. What a story the turnaround in fortunes has been. It is hardly arguable that the Georgian is the missing link the club had lacked all along.
In the Champions League, they were 15th and only made it to the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. The farmers league quotes had made the rounds and the club was written off.
They annihilated fellow Ligue 1 club Brest 10-0 over two legs in the playoffs. A second round fixture against Liverpool felt like a death sentence to many except PSG themselves.
In the first leg in Anfield, Liverpool prayed for mercy as they were played out of the park but that performance perhaps was the reassurance that they could do whatever they wanted against any team in any context of a football game.
Quarterfinal and semi-final victories against other Premier League teams — Aston Villa and Arsenal respectively meant that the pioneers of the farmers league tag had been roundly humbled. Add that to their defeat of Man City to make it to the playoffs and PSG defeated every English team in the Champions League this season.
Their first twenty minutes against Arsenal at the Emirates was when European football stood on its toes to admire a totally dominant performance. They courted respect and they got it.
In all these knockout games, Kvaratshkelia ran his socks off. He helped Nuno Mendes obliterate some of the finest wingers in football in Mo Salah and Bukayo Saka. He exemplified everything Enrique wanted — efforts, energy and endurance as the hallmark of team excellence.
Despite these convincing displays, the ghosts of the pandemic threatened in dark rooms. Some members of the current squad like Marquinhos had felt the agony of losing such an important game. In 2020, PSG lost their ever Champions League final. Another loss would be colossal and Inter Milan offered a stern test and PSG passed in radiant colours.
There has never been a Champions League final as convincing in its eloquence as PSG’s performance against Inter Milan in Munich. The Italians weren't just roundly beaten, they were taught a lesson in football.
The scoreline, embarrassing as it was, didn't tell all the tales the game offered. It could have been seven, eight or nine on the final of European football’s greatest club cup competition.
At 5-0, Kvaratshkelia still ran miles to cover his full-back, defending and attacking with the team and leaving himself to be judged by all. It is a spirit that is effervescent around PSG. Everyone runs for the cause.
Teenage wonder, Desire Doue stole the show on a historic night as he bagged a brace, while Ousmane Dembele’s Ballon D’Or credentials were given the greatest facelift they could get.
Yet, the place of their Georgian teammate, his genius and prowess may have been the biggest difference between this team and the rest. His addition was the jolt they needed. A final piece of a well-oiled jigsaw.
The year 2025 has been a year of harvests and the biggest farmers in Europe deserve a bumper harvest for all the agony and pain they've planted into the Parisien project. To do it the way they have is creditable, and it may not be the end. We can expect more from this team.
